The present invention relates to the keeping of medical records, and more particularly to a package of forms for keeping records relating to the medication administered to an individual patient.
The periodic administration of medication to patients in accordance with the instructions of their physicians is an important nursing function of modern hospitals. Accurate and readily available records of the medication prescribed and administered is essential to the performance of this function.
According to the conventional record-keeping techniques, physicians enter the medication prescribed, the dosage, and other such information on standardized charts, one such chart being provided for each patient. All the current charts pertaining to patients in a particular area of the hospital are collected in a loose leaf binder or the like and carried on a medication cart that is wheeled along a route from patient to patient. The physician's instructions are available for the nurse's reference at the patient's bedside, and she can immediately record the administration of the medicine to the patient to update appropriate columns on the chart.
Since the original medication charts are carried about on the medication cart and are not readily available to all nurses or physicians, it is conventional to maintain a periodically updated supplemental medication record at a nursing station or other fixed location. The copying of information from the chart carried on the medication cart to the supplemental record is time consuming and is a potential source of serious errors.
The principal objective of the present invention is to provide for the efficient and substantially error free transfer of information from the original medication record to the supplemental record.